In this episode of the Good Life Guys Show/Podcast, we talk about talking. How we represent ourselves verbally says a huge amount about the type of people that we are. A great orator comes across as confident, powerful, persuasive, and charismatic. So, how to achieve eloquence and verbal dexterity?

Our voice is one of the main tools we use to communicate with and display ourselves to the outside world. Our ability to speak well, and to make people enjoy listening to us, is a huge decider of how successful we become in all realms that involve interpersonal communication. So it is very advantageous to be eloquent and clear in your speech.

What Are The Advantages To Being A Great Orator?

How your voice sounds, and the words you say, are such a huge part of who you are. Your voice is a major calling card. It greatly affects how other people see you.

If you have a decent level of eloquence and verbal dexterity people will want to listen to you. You will be more attractive to the opposite sex. You will sound more confident and competent. You will have more gravitas and presence if you speak well.

It is exhausting to try to listen to someone whose speech is somewhat indecipherable. If a person’s speech is too fast, garbled, riddled with “umms” and “awws”, or burdened with over-repeated phrases such as “d’you know what I mean?” they are difficult to listen to. But bad speakers are very common. Subpar orators are the overwhelming norm. Great orators are rare.

What Is A Great Orator?

A great orator speaks clearly, concisely. They don’t speak too fast. They don’t make pointless sounds such as “uum” or “ehh”. They don’t repeat themselves unduly. They don’t say “like” and “d’you what I mean?” again and again. They take their time, and choose their words deliberately. They use interesting words when they are appropriate. But they are never verbose just for the sake of it. They are not communicating in order to appear clever. They are using their voice to communicate clearly, in order to be well understood and to entertain. They are representing themselves well in the world. They are aware that their voice is a crucial calling card, and they use it as well as they can.

Why Do So Many Of Us Speak So Badly?

Most of us could speak much more effectively than we currently do. Because it’s all too easy to speak badly. Most of the people in our lives who know us well enough to bother critiquing our voice have known us for a long time. And so they are used to our verbal style and have no trouble deciphering us. But just because your mother knows what you are talking about does not mean everybody else does too!

Insecurity plays a big part in why many of us do not speak well. We try to fill space by babbling and speaking fast because we are not confident enough that people will listen to us if we take our sweet time! We stumble over ourselves and “umm” and “aww” because we are in too much of a hurry. We don’t enjoy being the center of attention. Many of us are not confident holding the floor. We are afraid that we are dull and people will lose interest.

But the irony is that when we speak badly….. people do lose interest. Weak, fast, garbled speech dilutes the message. Calm, slow, well-chosen words are compelling. We have to build confidence in ourselves and our ideas in tandem with improving our verbal delivery skills.

How To Become Great?

With speech, like with all things, practice makes perfect. There are many ways to practice speaking. Record yourself and listen back. Attend Toastmasters. And most importantly, see every single interaction you have as an opportunity to hone your speaking chops.

Work hard on being disciplined in your speech and controlled in the words you choose to use. Weed your garden – jettison unnecessary sounds and stopgaps such as “like”, “umm” etc. Take your time – speak slowly and clearly. Speak only the words that you want to speak.

You can become an outstandingly eloquent and listenable orator simple by practicing hard. Every interaction you have during the day is an opportunity to practice being a great orator.

It can be tiring to make an effort to speak excellently, but it is very well worth it. There is so much power, opportunity, and human connection available to you if you can achieve a good level of eloquence and verbal dexterity.